Mineral nutrition in plants



  • Plants are capable of making all necessary organic compounds from inorganic compounds and elements in the environment
    • aka ‘autotrophic’
    • mineral: an inroganic element (e.g. inorganic ion from soil)
    • some minerals are essentail and some are beneficial


  • These resources often have multiple functions in the plant
    • metabolic, biochemical, structure, etc
    • amount required or present varies


  • Review: acquiring these resources requires and above- and belowground body plan
    • plants are ‘environmental miners’

What did you find: What limits plant growth and survival?



  1. What resource is most limiting for plants?
  2. Are there places on earth that are more nutrient limited than others?
  3. What plant ecosystems (natural/managed) are nutrient limited?
  4. What is the current state of nutrient limitation in global croplands?

Resources for photosynthesis


Nutritional elements for growth





  • Carbon, Hydrogen & Oxygen
  • 95% of biomass


  • Most have multiple functions


  • A few are often naturally limiting
    • why we fertilizer

N - P - K


Mineral elements come from soil


Review: Nutrient uptake by roots


Review: Nutrient uptake via fungi


Nutrients may be abundant but not avilable: Nitrogen


Nutrients may be abundant but not avilable: Nitrogen


Cool plant adaptations


What is the most essential resource for plants?


What resource most limits plants?






  • Answer: whichever resources is the most limiting


  • Liebig’s Law of the minimum
    • growth is dictated not by total resources available, but by the scarcest resource


  • Adding N-P-K to a crop is useless if there is no calcium

Plant nutrient limitation in crop systems